The roughly 19,000 Alabamians currently receiving federally funded unemployment benefits may lose those benefits in 2013 if legislators fail to reach a "fiscal cliff" avoidance compromise.

Across the state, roughly 42,000 Alabamians receive unemployment benefits, the Alabama Department of Labor estimates, representing roughly 0.87 percent of the resident population. Most of those -- about 23,000 -- have been receiving benefits for fewer than 26 weeks, which means they remain on the state roll and are not affected by questions about federal funding.

But for the 19,000 who currently receive federal benefits, the future is less certain.

"Federally-funded unemployment
benefits will immediately and completely stop on December 29, 2012, unless Congress acts," House Democrats said in a November report. The same report estimates that more than two million Americans across the country would be impacted if those benefits were to cease.

The insured unemployment rate in Alabama. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The insured unemployment rate in Alabama -- that is, the percentage of Alabama's covered labor force currently eligible for benefits -- is 1.85 percent, according to the latest estimate provided by the U.S. Department of Labor. The insured unemployment rate peaked above four percent at the end of the last recession, and has been steadily falling since then, outside of seasonal effects.